Photo: F. Hagedorn

Manfred Klett, co-founder of the Dottenfelderhof in Bad Vilbel and one of the outstanding pioneers of the biodynamic movement, passed away on April 2 at the age of 91. Together with his family and the international Demeter community, the Software AG Foundation (SAGST) mourns the loss of an inspiring pioneer whose work is also closely associated with SAGST.

"There are moments in life when you experience a karmic impact. One such situation happened to me when I met Manfred Klett and the Dottenfelderhof," recalls SAGST founder Peter Schnell of a momentous first encounter in the early 1980s. Klett's infectious enthusiasm for biodynamic agriculture as a cultural impulse inspired the IT entrepreneur Schnell to invest part of his private fortune in the Demeter farm project on the outskirts of Frankfurt to promote the future. The Software AG Foundation (SAGST), which was established later, is still associated with this central place of Manfred Klett's life and work today and supports, among other things, the local agricultural school as an important multiplier for cultivation, breeding and research in organic farming.

Klett had the gift of "finding words and images for the biodynamic impulse that opened up great worlds for his listeners", writes Section Leader Ueli Hurter in an obituary from the Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, where the doyen of the movement also played a formative role for over 20 years. Throughout his life, Klett put this special ability, his profound understanding and his enormous experience at the service of the biodynamic cause. The Juchowo village community in Poland, founded in 2001 and supported by SAGST as a major project, also benefited in an invaluable way from his impulses. Not least at the suggestion of his long-time companion Peter Schnell, Manfred Klett presented his legacy in the book "From Agricultural Technology to the Art of Farming", published in 2021 - a call to make biodynamics fruitful for future generations as the agriculture of the future.